The beginning of the 20th century was a revolutionary time for transportation, with the invention of automobiles, motorcycles, and airplanes. Since that time, engineers have endeavored to combine the capabilities of ground vehicles and airplanes to create a vehicle that one can operate on ground and in air. For some time, multi-role vehicles have been desirable for both personal and professional use. Many daily commutes involve long circuitous drives around natural obstacles, such as lakes or rivers, or around unnatural obstacles, such as heavy traffic or large sprawling suburbs with lower speed limits. To make a trip quicker, the operator of a multi-role vehicle can leave the ground, travelling by direct route—over a lake, river, or slow traffic—to a location where the vehicle can safely land near the final destination, drive the remaining short distance, and park just as any other ground vehicle would. Similarly, a multi-role vehicle will allow professionals such as doctors, police, or border patrol agents to more quickly reach people in remote locations that normally require many extra hours or days to assist when using conventional ground transport. These types of difficult to access locations may also necessitate a combination of an aircraft and multiple vehicles, each strategically positioned ahead of time at various locations along the journey, especially where road infrastructure is near impassable and where pre-positioning extra ground vehicles at various locations along the trip route would be extremely difficult. Often, for pleasure, government work, or commercial purposes, it is desirable, at a moment's notice, to travel to a destination between 80 and 300 miles away, without regard for prior planning. A multi-role vehicle allows an operator to drive to a nearby location where a safe conventional takeoff can be made, followed by a flight at typical aircraft speeds, and a landing at a safe location near the destination. After landing, a short drive to the final destination can be completed. This approach, using the vehicle's unique capabilities, typically cuts travel time in half, making possible “day adventures”, inspections, meetings, and other missions that otherwise may have taken two days or been quite exhausting when using conventional means of travel.
A multi-role vehicle is quite helpful in areas of the world where travel between islands or the mainland and islands is necessary. Such a vehicle is not a panacea for traffic woes and will not completely displace cars or airplanes. Already competent operators of motorcycles or automobiles will still need to be trained to be skilled in aircraft before they will be able to safely enjoy all the benefits of a multi-role vehicle, at least until autonomous self-navigating vehicles become more widely accepted and economically viable. Rather, a multi-role vehicle makes easy work of missions that are near impossible to complete as quickly or readily when using several separate conventional vehicles. Examples of missions where multi-role vehicles offer significant advantages include activities that take place at medium to long distances from home or office, or when access via conventional ground vehicles is time consuming. The differences between conventional and multi-role vehicles are striking when total time available for the round trip is limited, perhaps on a rare three day weekend when family time is precious, or in between international trips during a busy work week.
In general, design considerations for a vehicle capable of flight, with reasonable handling characteristics and a safe, robust design that does not involve translating or transforming primary pitch or yaw control surfaces during transitions between ground and air modes, are not compatible with design considerations for a typical motorcycle, car, or truck. The federal highway safety and EPA requirements for cars, trucks and motorcycles generally result in a weight penalty for an aircraft. An aircraft requires a wing to generate lift, but such a wing substantially reduces the aircraft's ground maneuverability and is aesthetically undesirable if the aircraft is ever “driven” on conventional roadways, even when wings are retracted via prior art methods. In addition, the overall weight of an aircraft is very important, while not as critical for a ground based vehicle. Thus, aircraft components are often designed and located to minimize weight, not necessarily located in a position that would benefit vehicle occupants in the event of a side or rear collision on the ground. Heavy parts in a ground based vehicle are often located in the vehicle to protect occupants, with more limited consideration of any impact on the vehicle's fore or aft center-of-gravity location. Contrast that with the structural design and placement of heavier aircraft component parts, such as the airframe and wings, often demanding use of a minimum amount of the lightest possible material and a carefully selected location critical to the performance of the aircraft in flight. Unfortunately, if a conventional aircraft were to be operated on the ground, such traditional design methods significantly reduce the protection afforded a pilot and/or passenger in a potential collision with other ground vehicles. No other multi-role vehicles to date have used critical structural parts that must be strong for the flight mode mission in a location that enhances protection of vehicle occupants in rear and side collisions without requiring any additional frame structure around the occupants and without the associated weight penalty of redundant structure.